Saturday, August 14, 2010

What kinds of considerations, again?

Oh, now this is riiiich:

An anonymous, twentysomething blogger is giving Mexicans what they can't get elsewhere — an inside view of their country's raging drug war.
...
Critics say it's free public relations for the cartels.
"Media outlets have social responsibilities and have to serve the public," said Carlos Lauria, of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. "This is being produced by someone who is not doing it from a journalistic perspective. He is doing it without any ethical considerations."
Yawn. Ethical considerations? Social responsibilities? Good Lord in heaven, but modern journalists have no shame whatsoever. I fail to see how publishing pictures of the havoc the cartels are wreaking on the streets of Mexico is not a journalistic act. And I have to wonder -- just how socially responsible is it, for example, to publish a list of concealed-carry permit holders, thereby giving criminals a shopping list? You know what I think? I think the journalist groups criticizing this blogger are just pissed off that they're not the ones getting the scoop or the hits. And it's their own damn fault, really. You can call it just one more example of those in charge at the newspapers being behind the curve vis-a-vis their own business model. I'm not surprised that none of Mexico's major media outlets didn't think of it beforehand, because I don't know why the people in charge at said outlets would be any smarter than their American counterparts. But this sniping at the bloggers in general is quite unbecoming of the traditional journalists.